• Valentino Safe Co owners Rudy and Kate Valentino with one of the unique safes in their collection, made between 1840 and 1860.
The thrill of opening a safe to discover centuries-old items and the stories behind them is a feeling that husband and wife locksmithing duo Kate and Rudy Valentino will never tire of.
Together they have almost 50 years of experience working with safes and are filled with a passion for preserving the wonderful history vaults bear.
This is evident when walking around their Lilydale-based shop, Valentino Safe Co, which is lined with safes, some more than 150 years old.
Learning the intricacies of safes was once a component of a four-year locksmithing apprenticeship, but now with the growing automation involved in key cutting and programming, high-end safe opening and relocation is somewhat of a dying art.
Valentino Safe Co is the only shop its kind in Tasmania, focussed on old-time craftsmanship.
The Valentinos make their living selling new, pre-loved and custom safes to individuals and businesses, as well as opening, removing and repurposing safes.
They never set out to open up a shop but after getting the contract to remove 35 safes that had been in the underground vault for 70 years from a closing Bank branch in Hobart, they needed more storage.
“At the time we were working from home and our garage is full of safes already,” Rudy said.
“We said ‘what are we going to do with all these beautiful safes?’ so we contacted the owner of this old servo which was vacant at the time.”
They hoped to store them out the back in the warehouse, but the only space available was a shopfront.
“We put them here and then all of a sudden we thought ‘this could really work’,” he said.
“The shop has just sort of grown from a storage unit to a museum.
“So instead of having them at home just for us to enjoy, it’s great to have them here.”
Since the shop opened 18 months ago, there’s been growing interest in their work, with history groups booking tours and members of the wider public regularly coming in for a look.
Many of the vintage safes you see in the Lilydale store are not for sale, with one exception – one bears a note ‘free bank safe…all you have to do is open it’.
Customers can try and guess the combination of the safe which has been locked for the past 10 years and its contents are unknown.
Valentino Safe Co is building a reputation across Australia, with regular contracts for mainland businesses and special requests from individuals.
“We’ve even had someone in Queensland send a lock down of a very special safe his family had had for years,” Rudy said.
“No one in Queensland could cut this key so with a local guy down the end our street who is a retired engineer, we made four of them and cut them, fixed all the locks and sent them back to Queensland.
“This guy was amazed because for years he’d tried to get locksmiths in Queensland to do it but no one would take on the job. They’ve got so much on that they can’t afford to have someone standing here for two days filing keys. We do that because that’s what we love doing.”
The green 1960s Bedford often parked out the front of the shop is Rudy’s daily car and a central part of the business when it comes to relocating safes that can weigh up to three tonnes.
Rudy said the historical aspect is his favourite part of the job.
“You open a safe and all of a sudden can tell a story,” he said.
“No matter where it’s been, they even smell interesting. There’s something magic and mysterious about it.
“As soon as you open a safe you get a vibe that there’s been some cool stuff in here, especially the ones from the early 1900s. There was a lot of cash and precious metals around throughout that era where the mining was.
“The best part about our job is that these things are designed to keep people out, everyone. It’s our job to open them,” Rudy said.
“That’s the puzzle. That’s what I like about them too,” Kate added.
“Behind that door, everything is different – there’s all sorts of boobytraps: glass and wires and different materials, how they’re built, fill of concrete or sawdust, depending on age. It’s really cool.”
She said when they are contracted to open or relocate a safe, the first stage is identifying it and visualising what is behind the door.
They often spend two to three days researching a safe to ensure they drill in the right place and have the appropriate tools on hand, so as not to damage the safe or its contents.
Squashing gunpowder into the keyhole and blowing it all apart was the first method of opening safes, used in the early 1900s.
Since then, Rudy said things have become more technical and safe manufacturers have adapted to try and stay one step ahead, using different boobytraps, which keeps their job interesting.
Kate and Rudy recently collected three safes otherwise destined for landfill from a business in Hobart closing its doors.
They were able to preserve historical documents which would have otherwise been lost.
“We’ve found lots of photos, personal documents, an amazing stash of Tasmanian history in one safe, land titles and deeds dating back to the 1830s, big banking ledgers,” Rudy said.
“Things like this are better than finding money.”
Rudy said as we move towards a cashless society, safes still very much have a purpose, holding personal documents, jewellery, and guns just to name a few.
The Valentinos estimate around a third of their work is selling and customising safes for gun dealers and collectors.
Kate said they’re currently upcycling quite a few old bank safes for guns and rifles, with Rudy building the internal compartments and putting new locks on them.
The couple joke they’re a bit like Bonnie and Clyde, except they use their talents for social good, not crime.
Kate and Rudy met years ago in Western Australia when they were working with one of the best safe crackers in Australia.
After some years apart, living in different states, they reunited at a locksmith conference in Queensland and the rest is history.
The Valentinos said in working and living in Lilydale they’ve found the balance of making a good living and also having a really good life.
They’ve become a valued part of the local community too and in the near future their shop will double as an event venue, with a liquor licence in the pipeline.
They held a successful open mic night last September, drawing performers aged four through to 75, and 120 patrons, raising around $1200 for the Lilydale Landcare group.
In the future Rudy said they look forward to hosting monthly events such as music nights, stand-up comedy and poetry evenings, providing a social hub for locals.
This article was first published in the North-Eastern Advertiser on March 9, 2022.
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